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NASCAR Winston Cup Pennsylvania 500This thread is Dedicated to:Our Troops around the World Fighting to preserve Freedom for AllOur FRiend tubebender Our Resident TrackPass InfoBabe WestCoastGal(HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR!)Pennsylvania 500 Bud Pole Qualifying Friday 7/30/04 3PM EST/NOON PST on TNTPennsylvania 500 Sunday 08/01/04 1:30PM EST/10:30 PST on TNT Pocono Raceway Pocono's unique 2.5-mile tri-oval features three turns, each with a different degree of banking(14/8/6), and three straights, each with a different length. This combination produces fender-to-fender action in the turns, 200 mph slingshots on the long straights and photo-finish endings. Some Driver prefer to shift and others don't.

This is a free-flow, no-holds bar, discussion of the latest happenings in the world of sports... Baseball: Mets sweep Yanks; Cubs sweep CWS; Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh?) on a 9-game winning streak.... All-Star team chosen, where's Lyle Overbay? Bonds all-time BB record... Mallon wins U.S. Open, at least Sorenstam was 2nd... Tennis: Who cares?.. Football: never an off-season... Cycling, NBA, NHL,etc...Let's have at it..

MADISON, Ill. - National Hot Rod Association drag racer Darrell Russell died Sunday night from injuries suffered in a violent crash during the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Gateway International Raceway. Russell, a 35-year-old native of Hockley, Texas, had just lost to Scott Kalitta in the second round of eliminations when his Top Fuel dragster crashed while running about 300 mph at the end of the quarter-mile strip at Gateway International Raceway. The crash occurred around 6:30 p.m. Central time. Just less than two hours later Graham Light, NHRA senior vice president of racing operations, announced to the media that Russell...

LONDON (Reuters) - Charles Darwin's theory of evolution could be used to "breed" a new generation of enhanced Formula One racing cars, British computer scientists said on Wednesday. Researchers at University College London demonstrated in simulations that it was possible to knock crucial tenths of a second off a lap time by tailoring a car's setup to whatever conditions are faced on the track. In a report to be presented later this month, the scientists will show how they applied genetic algorithms -- software that mimics evolution's drive for fitness -- to breed the best tuning configurations for racing cars....

The Triple Crown, and Smarty Jones, can he do it?Move over Seabiscuit, we have Smarty Jones to keep us on the edge of our seats..Saturday June 5, Smarty Jones could become only the second horse in history to have a shot at being an undefeated Triple Crown winner behind the fabulous Seattle Slew. Even the threat of rain can't dampen the excitement of the Belmont Stakes, as Smarty Jones goes for the whole enchilada, the coveted Triple Crown. The Triple Crown is comprised of three annual horse races: the Kentucky Derby (held on the first Saturday in May), the Preakness...

RICHMOND, Va. -- North Carolina Speedway will lose its only remaining race and Darlington Raceway will have just one as part of a realignment plan for 2005, a NASCAR source told The Associated Press on Thursday. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway would each get an additional race. An announcement by NASCAR chairman Brian France was scheduled for Friday at Richmond International Raceway, the source said. NASCAR officials declined to discuss specifics of France's announcement, saying only that the series has decided not to return to the track in Rockingham, N.C....

Dale Earnhardt Day BY KIM GIBSON EDITOR The Mecklenburg Times May 4, 2004 Mooresville, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt’s 76 race wins and seven Winston Cup championships may give his fans lots of bragging rights, but it’s more than statistics that continue to draw huge crowds to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. every April 29. The third-annual Dale Earnhardt Day was held last week on what would have been the racing legend’s 53rd birthday. The theme to this year’s event was “Dale’s Legacy at Daytona.” Earnhardt’s Daytona wins and near-wins were played on a Jumbotron screen outside. Inside fans waited in long lines...

Looks like a muddy slog today, I'll take Lionheart wire to wire with a late charge from Quintons Gold Rush.

Jockeys hint at Kentucky Derby boycott By BETH HARRIS, AP Sports Writer April 28, 2004 LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Jockeys John Velazquez and Jose Santos said Wednesday they might not ride in the Kentucky Derby if a federal judge bars them from wearing ads during the race. A group of jockeys challenged the state law banning them from wearing any advertising, promotional or cartoon symbols. The jockeys argued the law violates the First Amendment. In a second suit, the jockeys argued they should also be allowed to wear a patch with the name of their union, the 1,100-member Jockeys' Guild....

Court Rules Prosecutors Overstepped Bounds in Death of Racing Legend Mickey Thompson Apr 23, 2004 By Andrew Bridges/ Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) - Prosecutors in Orange County had no authority charging a former business partner of auto racing legend Mickey Thompson in the 1988 deaths of Thompson and his wife, a state appeals court ruled Friday. An attorney for Michael Goodwin said he would seek Goodwin's immediate release following the ruling. Otherwise, Goodwin could be freed when the ruling becomes final in 60 days, barring an appeal. "The court has said there was utterly no basis to have...

With apologies to comedian Jeff Foxworthy, if your company has the word "redneck" in its Web site address, you might be a well, you know. The Web site redneckjunk.com, which features classified advertising for racing equipment, hunting and fishing gear, boats and recreational vehicles, is changing its address to rjunk.com so it can continue sponsoring a NASCAR race car.NASCAR officials have strict guidelines for what may or may not be advertised on the track "beer, for example, is OK, but hard liquor is not" and apparently didn't like seeing the word "redneck" on Derrike Cope's car."We had developed a business...

When listeners tune their radio dial to WIBC-AM 1070 in Indianapolis on Sunday, April 4, many will do a double-take on the race broadcast they’re hearing: Ray Harroun just passed Al Unser Jr. for the lead? Tom Sneva just let Mauri Rose by and is coming into the pits? What’s going on here? It is the inaugural “Fantasy 500,” sponsored by Bill Estes Chevrolet in Indianapolis and presented by the American Dairy Association. The brainchild of WIBC on-air personality Dave Wilson, the Bill Estes Fantasy 500 pits the greatest drivers from multiple eras of Indianapolis 500 history against one another...

Too Much Military at the Races? [not in my book]: NASCAR's pre-race shows are impressively and colorfully patriotic, with flags waving and race crews, including drivers, standing crisply at attention on pit road, and with glorious vocals and spectacular military flyovers. However, according to sources, some Nextel officials are uneasy with the image that might be seen by some as too staunchly militaristic and pro-war and might prefer a more middle-of-the-road approach to that and other sensitive political issues. And it is being suggested, according to these sources, that since Republican George Bush was invited to Daytona, a similar invitation...

After taking a week off to get their equipment over to sunny Las Vegas, NASCAR's top 2 divisions are getting ready to go around Las Vegas Motor Speedway's 1.5 mile tri-oval. For the NEXTEL teams, qualifying starts at 6 pm Eastern over on Speed, with the race at 3 pm Eastern Sunday on Fox.

Tony George's bid to put his main competitor out of business failed Wednesday when a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge approved the sale of bankrupt Championship Auto Racing Teams to a group intent on keeping the series alive. George began the day hoping to make his Indy Racing League the only game in town. He ended it a gracious loser after his $13.5 million bid was rejected by Judge Frank J. Otte at the end of a daylong hearing in a packed courtroom at the Birch Bayh Federal Building and Courthouse. Moments after Otte rendered his verdict, evoking cheers from many...

<p>Sterling Marlin is a Civil War buff who grew up on the battlefields around his home in Spring Hill --- where some of his ancestors fought --- and is an avid collector of books, relics and artifacts.</p> <p>Last fall Marlin met Jeb Stuart IV, descendant of the famed Confederate cavalryman, who volunteered to take him on a tour of battle sites around Richmond, Va.</p>

When the fourth race at the Baghdad Equestrian Club got underway Friday, No. 1, a big-boned gray named Fawal, was heavily favored to win. But No. 6, the muscular, chocolate-colored Burhana, pulled ahead at the final turn, maintained his lead and finished first by a neck. The all-male crowd in the stands, many of them chronic gamblers and most of them scruffy, booed and grumbled in disappointment as they watched the instant replay. But for once, few doubted that the contest had been fair, and neither Fawal's jockey nor his trainer had to fear being jailed and beaten for the...

Without Arnold Rothstein, the 1919 White Sox may have been known as a championship team, instead of as the team that threw the World Series. Author David Pietrusza tells a fascinating story in "Rothstein: The Life, Times and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series" (Carroll & Graf, $27). We are taken to the seedy New York underworld from where Rothstein financed gamblers who bribed eight White Sox players to throw the World Series to Cincinnati. The Reds won the series, then a best-of-nine format, in eight games. "Rothstein made lots of money betting on underdogs...

Is America Promoting Street Racing? The latest plague to hit home in the US isn’t SARS or Smallpox. It’s something that has actually been around for quite a while now but hasn’t been toggled with. I’m talking about Street Racing. Parents all over America are sobbing over the loss of their child because of a car accident, but I’m not talking about your usual accident on the highway that took someone’s life. I’m talking about you going 120+ MPH on your local ¼ mile straight shot street. To make it worse, just these high speed racers aren’t dying, there are...

<p>Born on the lush bluegrass covered pastures of one of Kentucky's most famous Thoroughbred farms, Ferdinand would go on to become an American legend following his win at the 1986 Kentucky Derby and selection as the 1987 Horse of the Year. Yet, despite the lavish lifestyle and accolades afforded such a great champion, his life ended in a Japanese slaughterhouse to the horror of the American Thoroughbred industry.</p>